1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to communication systems and more specifically to reducing interference while communicating by utilizing frequency hopping.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In any electronic communication system there is a certain amount of interference which must be controlled. This interference can be any electrical or electromagnetic disturbance, phenomena, signal, or emission, man-made or natural, which causes or can cause an undesired response, malfunctioning, or degradation of the electrical performance of electrical equipment. To reduce or eliminate this interference or jamming there are several prior art techniques. One such prior art technique is to utilize frequency hopping.
Several problems are associated with frequency hopping, however. First, the audio signal is chopped with a dead time that occurs at the beginning of each hop. Second, the signal strength varies from hop to hop. Finally, certain channels are already occupied with a strong signal that can drown out the hopping signal. These three phenomena are known as hop noise and can be very distracting.
It is an object of the present invention to avoid the deficiencies of typical frequency hopping as well as the deficiencies of other prior art noise elimination techniques and to provide an improved communication system in which the operator will not notice a change in the audio output from single frequency operation to frequency hopping operations.